


Mistletoe

by imaginaryfriendashkun



Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: Angst, Attempt at Humor, Bad Luck, Bad incidents hound Nines, Depressed Gavin, Gavin hates himself at the beginning, Hurt/Comfort, I'm Sorry, Idiots in Love, M/M, Mistletoe, Misunderstandings, Mutual Pining, Starts very angsty but ends up in crack and with a happy ending, oblivious idiots
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-01
Updated: 2020-11-01
Packaged: 2021-03-09 02:28:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,281
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27327340
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/imaginaryfriendashkun/pseuds/imaginaryfriendashkun
Summary: Gavin is not upset that Nines refused to kiss him under a mistletoe. No, he is not. Although, it is for altogether a complete different reason, not the angsty reason that Gavin is overthinking about.
Relationships: Nines/Gavin Reed, Upgraded Connor | RK900/Gavin Reed
Comments: 4
Kudos: 72





	Mistletoe

**Author's Note:**

> DISCLAIMER: All rights reserved. No part of these pages, either text or image may be used for any purpose other than personal use. Reproduction, modification, storage in a retrieval system or retransmission, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical or otherwise, for reasons other than personal use, is strictly prohibited without prior written permission. 
> 
> All mistakes - plot, grammar, characterization, situation descriptions - are mine. Not beta'd. Let me know if there are glaring problems, I want to improve :) 
> 
> #DetroitEvolution

Gavin has always been a lonely being since childhood. Not many friends. His parents didn't like him. He didn't have any relatives or grandparents or any other family. He didn't have any lovers.

He knows how desperation feels like. He knows how cruel the world can be. He knows the harsh reality. _Fuck._ He lives in it every day, every second, every hour, every minute. There has been no change and he is almost 35.

He is probably going to die like this.

He used to hope at times, cry at times without even realizing but those stopped too sometime back. All he feels is numb. And that is how he is feeling now given that Nines just refused to kiss him under the mistletoe. The numbness turns into something more negative and demon like.

Gavin has a crush on the android, on Nines, on the android who _hates_ him, who hates his entire existence and being. Gavin has always been careful to not let it show, he has hidden it till now wonderfully. He doesn't know how but he somehow managed.

Nines is glaring at him and at the mistletoe. It was done by Connor and Tina and Gavin hates them. He is not kidding, he is not joking, he actually hates them. He told them _not_ to meddle. He told them clearly that Nines doesn't like him, he thought he made it clear, apparently not.

They think that Nines likes him. The idiots. Who would like someone like him, much less love? He is boring, he cannot take care of others, much less himself, he is emotional, short tempered, aggressive, quick to react first, think, analyze, talk later, doesn't express his real emotions easily. He is lonely and he looks weird with dark circles under his eyes. He is not sociable. He doesn't like touching people.

He doesn't like people in his personal space. He is careful. Weary. He has trust issues. He is like a cat. He is hard to understand, harder to live with, even harder to take care of and hardest to love. He likes animals better than humans. And it goes both ways.

And no, his heart doesn't break at the look of disgust in Nines' eyes.

People avoid him if they can. Some people are even afraid of him. Even few coworkers who are supposed to know him. Worst of all, he hates himself. It is like people see only the worst in him. He sees only the worst of himself. Like he is a bad guy or a void or something. And he is used to this. He doesn't try to change. This is just him, tough and real. He takes it all in stride most of the times but sometimes, he does feel the whole weight of the world on his shoulders and a harsh constriction in his chest, unable to breathe or move on or let go.

He says before he can stop himself, before Nines can say something more gut wrenching.

"You don't have to, Computer."

Nines shakes his head, "I wasn't planning on it, Detective."

Of course, of course, that doesn't fucking sting. No, it really doesn't.

"It can bring bad luck." Tina says softly from behind and Connor is nudging her to shut up.

Nines and Gavin both glare at her. She hangs her head. She has the decency to look ashamed. So does Connor. They both know that they have done something wrong. Good. Gavin is not going to let the two of them get out of this easily.

Nines shrugs. "Officer Chen, I am an android. Androids don't need luck. We don't believe in luck. This shouldn't force people to kiss each other without their consent. Especially when people aren't comfortable or don't like it."

And no, Gavin's heart doesn't crumble into a million glass pieces. Nines isn't comfortable with him. Not just that. Nines doesn't like him. Nines doesn't want to fucking kiss him.

Of course, he has been nothing but a prick towards Nines. Yes, Gavin hated androids but he started respecting Nines after working together with him for a long time. But he still continued to tease and call him names because he doesn't know how else to behave around Nines. He just doesn't want Nines to know that Gavin has a crush on him and this seemed the only logical way and of course, with it, Nines' hatred and indifference also grew towards him. They somehow manage to work together well by some miracle but other than that, there is nothing between them personally.

Gavin reaches out, plucks the mistletoe and throws it into the dustbin with all his might and walks away.

He didn't know that he is still capable of wanting, waiting, wishing for things, that he can still be greedy at times, that he still wants to be loved, to be taken care of, to share touch with someone, to be loved, pampered, spoiled. Does he deserve it though?

~~~~~~~~~~

Gavin is surprised as Nines walks towards him quickly with intent - after three weeks of dancing and awkwardness and avoiding and playing and skirting - and pulls Gavin towards him by his shirt's collar and kisses him on the mouth.

Gavin is shocked and that is an understatement and he can't even kiss back, he just freezes and before he can actually make a decision to kiss back or not, wonder if this is real or not, wonder if this is a prank, Nines pulls back, looking everywhere else but Gavin. The whole bullpen is pin drop silent. Nines kissed him, without a reason, in front of all their colleagues?

Gavin feels anger. Ignoring and being hated is fine but being taunted doesn't sit well with him. He didn't expect this kind of behavior from Nines. 

Nines whispers, "I will never underestimate a god damn mistletoe again."

Gavin's eyes narrow, "Are you _done?"_ Before he can punch Nines, Nines starts his explanation.

"Yes, Detective, I am terribly sorry about that, I just wanted it to stop, bad luck kept hounding me, I am tired of being surrounded by bad luck."

"Are you even serious, Calculator? Do you want me to hack you into fucking pieces? What the hell? I thought your superior fucking ass didn't believe in luck, asshole. You didn't believe in mistletoe either, remember?"

Nines looks taken aback by Gavin's venom.

Gavin takes a deep breath and places his fingers on the bridge of his nose and calms himself down, if this were someone else, they would have been dead even though they are in DPD. "Your big brain's analysis led you here, seriously?"

Nines nods, "Yes, very sure."

Gavin can't take this anymore. Is Nines actually asking him to believe this bullshit? Who put this idea in his head? Who put Nines up to this? Do they have a grudge on Gavin? Nines doesn't know social protocols that well, he is still learning about his deviancy, still coming to terms with himself, still new. And, that is a fucking flimsy shitty excuse even for Gavin.

Fine. Never mind. Done is done. Nothing to overthink or analyze. This is going nowhere. Will go nowhere. He doesn't want it to go anywhere. It is time to give up and move on from his ridiculous crush for his own sanity. What the fuck is this situation even? He sighs, "OK."

Nines cocks his head in confusion, "OK?"

Gavin nods.

He turns and glares at the others who are doing a very poor job in hiding their interest. They turn away hurriedly to mind their own business. He starts walking away briskly. He can't break down here. No. He refuses to. _Fuck no._

Nines follows him and pulls his hands gently.

"Detective, I am sorry that you were kissed by someone whom you hate, I kissed you without consent, without your permission, you can sue me for sexual harassment, I held back last time but I really couldn't anymore, that's rude, disappointing, I didn't want to kiss you before not because of you but I didn't want our first time to be forced under a mistletoe, I didn't want to kiss you without telling you about what you meant to me, without clearing stuff up, sorry that I kissed you even though you don't feel the same about me. I thought I could move on, apparently not. My protocols go haywire when it comes to you."

Those three weeks of dancing was Nines trying to make things better by ignoring Gavin and staying away and battling on how to tell Gavin or not tell at all? Because he thought that Gavin wanted Nines _away_ from him? Oh. That's what he thought of Gavin. 

Huh? Wait _what?_

_**What the fuck?** _

Gavin has a lot of things to say but the words that stumble out of his mouth are, "Do you know about history of mistletoe?" He feels dumb and regrets it, fuck no, that's _not_ what he wanted to ask.

Nines nods seriously and answers in a straightforward way, "Yes, I know that it is supposed to be romantic and lovely and connected with good luck and charm, to bring couples together but as an android, I didn't want to depend on it. Use it. To get to you. I wanted to do it on my own terms. But failed as I used something as illogical as bad luck instead. I am a failure."

RK900's don't fail. They are not built to fail. Gavin doesn't point that though. He keeps it tucked away in his mind for future reference and talk, when they are alone.

Gavin sometimes forget that Nines is straight forward if faced directly, he just doesn't tell everything because he assumes that Gavin or other humans can understand if he uses minimum words. He also doesn't like using a lot of words. Doesn't work all the time though.

Gavin just wants to reconfirm. He doesn't want to get burned again. He is not going into this without confirmation. He doesn't want hallucinations again. Nines still hasn't said the exact words, Gavin asks, "You, _huh,_ like me?"

Nines nods and looks upset. "Yes, but you hate me, right, Detective?" He has gotten pretty expressive lately.

Gavin rolls his eyes and smacks his forehead and sighs, "Are you an idiot, fucking tin can?"

"Detective?" Nines looks genuinely confused.

Gavin pulls him for another kiss harshly and they claim each others' lips hungrily.

They ignore the video shoot, the camera clicks, the exchange of money, high fives, hand claps and the wolf whistles and whispers of 'We were right, dumbasses!' from Tina, Hank, Chris, Connor and a few others in the bullpen. Are they watching a drama movie or something? They seem to be so obsessed and invested in this. Gavin should collect money from them.

He flicks them off and pulls Nines away from prying eyes where it can be just the two of them. They still have a lot of catching up and clearing stuff to do.

/* BONUS */

Gavin clears his throat, "What bad luck did you exactly face tin-... Nines? Enlighten me." Gavin is very curious. He is sure that Tina and Connor have nothing to do with any of that this time but he is still curious. What happened that annoyed even Nines? What happened that Nines wanted it all to stop? Do mistletoe bad luck affect androids? Do they even affect humans in the first place?

Nines flushes a little. His cheeks become blue. And it looks different from his pale untouched skin. He looks cute. He looks a bit confused and at loss of words, for the first time. Nines isn't good at lying. He isn't good at making up stuff. He is only good at skirting around them. He doesn't want to tell the truth now. But Gavin wants to hear it, no matter what.

Gavin catches on quickly. He hasn't been a detective for years for nothing.

"So nothing actually happened, you just needed an excuse to kiss me? Because you thought and thought and you couldn't find something logical, you wanted our first kiss to be proper, not because of a mistletoe... _yet..."_ Gavin teases.

Nines coughs, "Detective, things actually happened."

"Not anything you couldn't deal with though, right?" After all, Nines is the most advanced AI out there, capable of anything and everything. All he has to do is think and put his mind and it would be done in a heartbeat or maybe even less.

Gavin really likes the blue color of Nines' cheeks, so different from his supposed still, expressionless face, it is nice to see Nines get flustered. Not in a bad way. It is just adorable. Endearing. Soft. So human like. Gavin has been beating himself so bad and he doesn't want Nines to go through any of that to be honest.

Even though Gavin goes into a slump at times, he doesn't like that state of himself - who would like to be depressed and down even if it were only for a few hours? - and of course, that's exactly why he doesn't want Nines to be like that. Yes, deviancy has shown that even androids can get scared, hurt, depressed, anxious. 

Deviancy hasn't given androids only the positive rose tinted emotions - happiness, love, laughter, care, hope; it has given them the negative ones - anger, sadness, jealousy; as well without any discrimination.

But that doesn't mean that Gavin is going to walk on eggshells around Nines. Nines is capable of handling himself, protecting himself and Nines is very fun to tease. Sometimes he has come backs, sometimes it is the way he reacts, sometimes he ignores Gavin and all different sides of Nines are nice to see. Unpredictable.

And this new side of Nines, silly and ironical, rejecting mistletoe but using something as bad luck to get together with Gavin seems weird and paradoxical, just like Nines himself. Of course Nines is still learning social stuff but he _really_ wanted this, Gavin can feel that and something happy blooms in his chest. Nines wanted him. Nines wants him, needs him, loves him, likes him.

Nines nods with hesitation. Gavin rolls his eyes and turns Nines' head to look into his eyes. There is something warm in Nines' eyes, not the usual focus and coolness. Gavin is the cause of it. Only Gavin. Always.

"Out with it."

Nines sighs, "The summary in my head doesn't sound good even to my own ears, Detec-... Gavin."

"I am not going to judge you."

Nines snorts. Of course, Gavin is going to fake judge and pull Nines' legs, that part of them will not stop. There is fun in those small banters, in those little cat and rat chases.

"They credited my salary to someone else's account."

"You could have just hacked and got it back, from that person or from the DPD database directly."

"Do you want me to end up in prison? That is not legal."

"You won't even leave traces, please, I know what you are capable of, you don't even need money to live!"

Nines pouts. "I need money for few things." Gavin decides he doesn't want to ask about that now. Maybe later.

"Go on." Gavin says. He doesn't want to divert because Nines threw in the previous statement just for that, hoping to shift the topic. Gavin isn't going to. Nines has been a little shit and Gavin wants to be one. Although, Gavin is a little shit all the time.

"Are you sure?"

Gavin nods in affirmative.

"Someone dropped a flower pot on my head by mistake while cleaning."

"Again, the flower pot would have probably broken into two, nothing would have happened to your strong head. You would have just ended up with sand and flowers on your head and face, which again is very easy to clean off for an android."

"What if it had been something deadly and heavy, Gavin?" Nines whines a little.

Gavin looks at Nines as if Nines has lost his head. "What the fuck is more deadly and heavier than you, _Terminator?"_

Nines turns his head and Gavin pats his back, holding back laughter and ignoring Nines' face scrunching up. "Go on."

_"No."_ Nines says.

"Common."

"Are you going to stop teasing me?" Nines asks.

"No, of course not, this is precious."

"Then, _**no."**_

"I can do a thorough investigation, stalk you, take out dash cams, follow your path for the past few weeks around, talk to random strangers or maybe even get Tina or Connor or Hank or Fow-"

"OK, the stairs of my apartment broke."

It is so funny that Nines gives in easily at the mention of Connor, Hank and Fowler.

"Probably because of your strength. You probably didn't even fall given your amazing ninja reflexes, just punched a hole through it, balanced and stood there and had to pay for it. You probably went and told the landlord directly instead of getting away. There is no CCTV there, you could have gotten away, again."

It is interesting how Nines hides and keep certain things about the incidents to himself. He might not be able to out right lie or something but he certainly is good at hiding things. Probably picked up that from Gavin himself.

"Do you ever get tired of making jokes about me, android or not, Detective?"

It is interesting how Gavin knows a lot about him, how they are attuned to each others' actions and can guess what if scenarios. Yet, why couldn't they tell that they were in love with each other? Why did they think they hated each other?

"Not when you give me so much matter to work with so easily and readily, Toaster."

"Did all of these really happen?"

Nines sighs. "You don't seem to believe me, Gavin."

Gavin really can't be blamed given how Nines is almost perfect. These words out of his mouth do seem funny instead of serious, Nines stating these seriously makes it even more funnier. There are things that don't matter to him at all. He really just wanted an excuse to kiss Gavin. Gavin is glad he didn't hesitate because he himself wouldn't have taken that first step.

"Tell me more."

"I got wet."

No, Gavin's mind doesn't go there. He gulps. Thankfully, Nines goes on and ignores Gavin's gesture. "I lent someone else my umbrella and got rained on."

"You are _waterproof."_ Nines doesn't need an umbrella and his prediction of the weather is more accurate than the actual weather channel. 

"But my clothes got wet." Nines persists. His LED keeps changing colors frequently like a show.

"I stepped on dog poo and crows didn't leave me alone either."

Gavin doesn't even have a come back for that. He just clutches his stomach and laughs. He wipes away his tears at Nines' affronted and disgruntled expression. No, these things don't bother or annoy or mean to him much but Gavin laughing at him does, a lot. And no, that does not increase Gavin's head size or boost his ego.

How did he even think that Nines hated him? That Nines detested him? That he would never be loved and would die alone? They were just so fucking awkward around, with each other. Fools. Blind fools.

"You deserved all that for refusing that kiss without proper explanation. Karma is a bitch. You are fucking cute and we were idiots, humongous ones, no wonder our whole team is laughing at us."

Nines catches on. "You... liked me too, Gavin?"

"Yes, Nines. I did. I _do."_

He pulls in Nines for another kiss and just melds their body together. This is where they belong.

**Author's Note:**

> Please DO NOT REPOST my fics without my permission. Kindly ask me before hand for translations. Credit my work/profile Ao3/Wattpad URL without fail. I am on AO3 ([imaginaryfriendashkun](https://archiveofourown.org/users/imaginaryfriendashkun/pseuds/imaginaryfriendashkun)) and Wattpad ([alien/imaginaryfriendashkun](https://www.wattpad.com/user/alienfriendashkun)) and Youtube ([Ash Kun](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEWO5kWpuGFJzdSV0LTLGKg?view_as=subscriber)) and Tumblr([imaginaryfriendashkun](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/imaginaryfriendashkun)) and not on any other platform
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